


Make a Mercy Out of Me

by Sushispider1212



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom
Genre: It’s major character death because they’re major characters and they died, M/M, Some of the deaths are pretty brutal, but that’s not now, ghost au, mild body horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26851678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sushispider1212/pseuds/Sushispider1212
Summary: Tommy moves into a new house, but strange things begin happening around the place. Turns out, the house is mega haunted.But hey, the ghosts are (mostly) nice, the house was cheap, and Tommy hopes he can be the best friend these ghosts could ask for.
Comments: 39
Kudos: 121





	1. Nothing at All

**Author's Note:**

> Hey look, a ghost Au. I put a lot of thought into the backstory of the ghosts.

Tommy hopped out of his car with a chirp, grabbing Sunkist’s leash as she hopped out of the car behind him. He looked up at the building in front of him, his new house.

His father had bought it for him, after Tommy had expressed his concerns about his prior roommates being very toxic. Tommy had picked the house out himself, especially since it was very affordable, and had a nice garden space for Sunkist to run around in.

The house came fully furnished, so Tommy only really needed to bring his personal belongings to move in. Everything was stored in the backseat and trunk of his car, but he wouldn’t be doing unpacking just yet.

The first order of business was making sure he had somewhere to sleep, as it was already sundown. Tommy walked up the driveway, pausing to pet the stone goose statue on the porch, and unlocked the door with the keys he had been provided.

The house itself had been recently cleaned by the previous owners, so it wasn’t coated in dust or anything, but it was a little anticlimactic to open the door to a small living room with a couple couches and empty bookshelves against the wall.

There was another room on the left of the living room, and from the opening it appeared to be a dining room. Beyond that, Tommy could see a little into the kitchen. 

There was a tiled staircase on the other side of the living room, presumably leading up into the bedrooms. Tommy decided to go up there first, after taking off Sunkist’s harness to let her roam around the new house.

There was a little hallway in the upstairs portion, with several rooms spaced along it. Tommy walked to the room positioned at the end of the hallway, the door wide open, so Tommy could see the bedroom he remembered from the house tour.

Tommy stepped inside the room and looked it over. There was a huge bed laid against the wall, the head of it touching the wall. There was a closet across the wall opposite the door, and next to the closet was a little bathroom with a wall-length mirror and separate room past that for the shower and toilet.

The best part of this room, in Tommy’s opinion, was the view from the window. The house was situated on a hill, and a little ways away from other houses, so Tommy got lovely morning light from the sun, and he could watch a beautiful sunrise if he was up that early.

Tommy placed his drawstring bag down on one of the dressers in the room. It only contained the things he would need for the first night here, before he really needed to unpack everything from his car.

Tommy opened the curtains and stared off into the horizon, smiling as he watched the sky turn pretty colors as the sun set.

——-

Tommy returned to the house with Sunkist, and flopped down on the couch, covering his head with his arms. It had only been a few days since he had moved into the house, but that day was the day he had went back to work.

What was his work? He stocked shelves at a grocery store.

It was really the only position in the store that allowed him to have Sunkist with him at all times, as she was his emotional support dog. Sometimes Sunkist even helped him out when stocking shelves.

But today, a nosy customer had gotten in his face about Sunkist, and it was extremely stressful in the moment. Now, Tommy felt completely drained of energy.

He could have been doing better things than working a minimum-wage job, but apparently big companies don’t respect thirty-seven year olds with bright ideas over sixty-something year olds with outdated notions of what people not like them require emotionally.

Tommy felt Sunkist’s nose touch his shoulder, and shifted his head to look at her. She nudged him with her nose until he was sitting up, and then leapt onto his lap. They sat like that for a bit, with Tommy hugging Sunkist, and Sunkist sitting there.

Sunkist was glancing around the room, which Tommy couldn’t see because of his face being buried in her fur. Her eyes were following something, but she didn’t growl or anything. Just sat there.

After a little bit, Tommy let go of Sunkist and she jumped off the couch. Tommy ended up not making much for dinner that night, and later, exhausted from his day, just ended up flopping down on his bed, not bothering to crawl under the sheets or anything.

Once he was asleep, Sunkist quietly jumped off the bed. She had been watching a particular corner of the room for a little while, and finally approached the mysterious figure standing there.

He had been there the prior night, and the night before that, never moving from the corner, and just watching Tommy. She looked intently at the man. Of course, she didn’t miss the slight transparency of his outline, so he must be a ghost.

The ghost in question appeared to be in his late twenties. One thing of note was that he was slightly shorter than Tommy. And that he also was missing part of his right arm.

Sunkist didn’t know if this was just a ghost thing or not, but there were these large iridescent blue lines racing up the ghost’s right arm, the only opaque part of the arm. They were very angular, racing along, tracing the veins all along it, until it was obscured from view. The markings even covered the ghost’s neck, albeit faintly.

The ghost gazed down at Sunkist, bending down and placing his hand out tentatively. Sunkist gently nudged his hand with her muzzle, and he definitely felt real, albeit a little cold.

Sunkist moved to the side as the ghost stepped forward, tentatively making his way to the bed, Tommy still asleep on top of it. Sunkist growled lightly, as a warning to the ghost, as the ghost gently grabbed the blankets on top of the bed.

He gradually worked the blankets out from under Tommy, very gently as to not wake him up, and then gently placed those blankets on Tommy with a dramatic flourish that the ghost must have done hundreds of times in life. This ghost must have had a child or something in life.

Tommy unconsciously curled up a little bit more underneath the blankets, and the ghost stepped back, turning to look at Sunkist. Sunkist wagged her tail and trotted up to the ghost. She gave a little nod, and leaped back up onto the bed, settling down next to Tommy.

The ghost went to sit back down in the corner again, the nervous look on his face replaced by a content smile.

——-

Though Tommy didn’t know it, the ghost helped him out a little bit every night, but he only stayed in the bedroom.

If Tommy had misplaced something getting ready for work in the morning, it would usually reappear on a dresser among the other items placed there. Occasionally he wouldn’t make the bed each morning like he usually would, but the bed would be made when he entered the bedroom later that day.

Tommy didn’t notice these little things, but the ghost didn’t mind. He just wanted to help where he can, even if he never left the bedroom.

One day, however, Tommy decided to clean up the bedroom a little bit, finding a place to put all the little trinkets of his that he hadn’t put out yet. Sunkist was laying down on the bed, watching Tommy and the ghost, who was inspecting each object without touching it.

Tommy soon grew bored of his task, so he turned on some music from his phone. He was common for him, he had a particular song in his head, one that usually ended up with him singing the song on repeat until he had his fill of it and moved on to the next.

This particular song was very catchy, so Tommy had been playing it on loop for the past fifteen minutes or so, singing along most of the time. This particular time, he had been singing along so intently that he hadn’t noticed another voice singing with him.

Tommy paused to catch his breath after the lead up to the first refrain, and was surprised to hear another voice keep singing the song.

The voice kept singing the refrain, hitting the notes surprisingly well. Tommy bopped his head as the voice kept singing along. Eventually the song ended, and Tommy managed to catch it just in time before it looped again.

Tommy looked around the room, confused as to where the voice had come from. Sunkist however, was looking at a spot directly to Tommy’s right, right next to the window, but there was no one there.

“Hello?” Tommy asked, not knowing where to look. “My-my name’s Tommy! What’s your name?”

There wasn’t a reply for a couple seconds, but a shaky voice responded. “Gordon. Gordon Freeman.”

“Well, Mr. Freeman, it’s nice to meet you!” Tommy smiled, somehow happening to look directly where Gordon was at the moment.

Gordon smiled back and looked over at Sunkist, who was wagging her tail happily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a tumblr account if you want to talk to me on there  
> https://sushispider1212.tumblr.com/
> 
> This is a side project I’m working on alongside my other fics, so stay tuned.


	2. I Talk in My Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The power of Pokémon Cards and Perplexus Orbs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me a while to figure out where this was going. It’s a little clunky at times, but hopefully it isn’t too jarring.

It was interesting to have a ghost housemate, to say the least. Tommy would wake up in the morning and get ready for the day, turning away from his messy bed for a second, only to turn around to see it in the process of being made already. 

Gordon really liked cleaning up around the bedroom for some reason, and Tommy wasn’t going to stop him. Tommy wasn’t a messy person or anything, but he figured if that was what the ghost wanted to do, that was what he wanted to do.

One morning, Tommy specifically left a book on top of the bed before he left for work that day, with a bookmark next to it. When he returned from work, he could see the book floating in midair in the corner of the room, Gordon already halfway through the long book.

It was a slow couple of weeks before the next ghost sighting occurred. In fact, it happened after Tommy had gotten a couple boxes from his father. The boxes contained a bunch of his old childhood things that his father had found stored somewhere, and Tommy had picked them up the next day.

He was currently in the process of moving the boxes to the attic, Sunkist following behind him up the stairs. The stairs to the attic were on the far left of the upstairs hallway, rickety wooden steps spiraling around until it hits the attic.

Finally, Tommy had moved all of the heavy boxes to the dusty space. It was surprisingly spacious in the attic, almost big enough to cover the entire floor, and Tommy’s meager amount of boxes barely covered half of the room.

Now was the fun part, going through the boxes. He dug up various old toys, mostly action figures, and oh sweet, Pokemon Cards! Tommy had found his old stash of them, and from what he remembered there were a lot of them.

In fact, he found one of the old decks he had made, with messy handwriting on the front indicating the name he had given it.

“Soda and Sunshine.” He whispered to himself. He gave a little happy giggle and grabbed another one of the decks. He rummaged around a little more and found some of his other toys, a couple old Beyblades, and ran back downstairs with the toys in hand.

——-

Gordon stared down at the confusing cards in front of him. He really needed to remember the order of everything. It didn’t help that he was basically invisible to the person he was playing against.

He was completely lost, but kept trying to play the game, if only to make Tommy happy. He really liked knowing that because of him, someone was feeling just a little bit better about their day.

Gordon was so focused on his thoughts, that he missed the moment the noises began. Tommy was in mid-sentence when he paused, alerting Gordon to the noises coming from the attic, a sound like heavy boxes falling. It probably was that, considering that Tommy had moved those boxes up there.

Gordon placed his cards on the ground, face-down, (it was tricky to play card games with one hand) and went to go investigate. Tommy had started getting up, but Gordon stopped him.

“It could be dangerous,” he said. “I’ll check first, then you can come.” Gordon looked down at Tommy, who was still staring at his cards.

“There’s more ghosts Mr. Freeman?” Tommy looked up, but Gordon had already pushed the door open and exited the bedroom.

Gordon rarely left the bedroom since his death, and he felt safer there, especially since none of the other ghosts had claimed it as their rooms. Gordon looked at the lower floor as he passed the staircase down, his eyes not seeing the elderly couple who resided there. They must have been in the kitchen.

Gordon couldn’t recall who lived in the attic, seeing as he rarely exited the bedroom. Heck, he only knew about the couple because of his denial of being dead that first month. He shivered thinking of it.

The reason he wanted to check the attic before Tommy was because of this one particular ghost. He could see them in the corners of the house, all their little eyes watching Tommy from the shadows. He hated leaving Tommy alone in the bedroom, but he hoped that the room being his domain would protect him for long enough.

Frankly, most of the house was safe because of the rule of domains. But still, doesn’t hurt to check.

When Gordon made his way up to the attic, he was relieved. It looked like this ghost could be reasoned with.

The ghost of course was wearing what looked like the kind of mad-scientist outfit in cheesy movies. And he was trying to pick up boxes, but kept dropping them as they phased through him.

“Oh dear.” The ghost said as he dropped another box. Gordon walked over to him to help pick the scattered objects up. “Oh!” The ghost looked at Gordon for a little bit. “You’re the bedroom ghost, right?”

Gordon nodded and set the box down on the ground. “How’d you know that?”

The ghost laughed. “Oh, my name’s Darnold, by the way. I tend to walk around at night, seeing as the attic is rather boring.”

“Gordon. Gordon Freeman. Now why were you going through these boxes?”

“Well, as I said, the attic is really boring. I saw the human going through their old toys, and decided to rummage around as well!”

“His name’s Tommy, by the way.”

“Anyways, could you help me look around? I can’t really interact with the material plane like you can, Gordon. That’s why I kept dropping them.” Darnold trailed off with a nervous chuckle.

Gordon nodded and went to help Darnold out. They didn’t find much in the way of anything Darnold might like, but were interrupted by Tommy making his way up the stairs.

Tommy stared blankly at the array of objects on the floor in front of him, until noticing the objects floating around in midair. “Oh, if I was interrupting something, I can leave Mr. Freeman.” 

“No, it’s fine Tommy. This is Darnold, by the way.” Gordon motioned with a model airplane toward Darnold. Tommy could just vaguely see a patch of shimmery mist where Gordon was motioning, but held out his hand in a greeting anyways.

He shivered as he felt a cold presence grab his hand. He shook it for the both of them, and then retreated. That was weird, to say the least. Not the weirdest at least.

“Hmm. If you’re so bored, I could probably find one my favorite toys!” Tommy then dug into the boxes, digging up something that he remembered fairly recently.

Tommy held it up to the light, a dusty plastic orb, with various different plastic beams and stuff on the inside, creating a cluttered tangle in the middle. And, the bane of Tommy’s existence, the marble in the orb, rolling around in the bottom in a ceaseless clatter.

Tommy held it out to Darnold, and released it as the ghost took it. And he held it. 

Of course, Tommy had missed this part, and not knowing that Darnold phased through things made the next event seem a bit odd.

Darnold just kinda stood there, holding the orb. Then he shook it. His eyes widened as he played with the little toy, not knowing what he was supposed to do with it, but enjoying the fact that he could just hold the object.

——-

And so, Tommy made friends with another one of the house’s ghosts. He started buying more puzzles for Darnold, and even occasionally bringing books up to the attic for Darnold.

He even left a little notepad for Darnold to write things down for him, seeing as Darnold couldn’t speak to the living like Gordon could. Well, Sunkist liked Darnold at least, so that was something.

Occasionally, Darnold would join Tommy, Sunkist, and Gordon for what Tommy called a “jam session”, which was just Tommy playing a bunch of music from his phone and seeing what the ghosts liked.

They never cared much for watching this exchange. The music was good, but they really despised the noise. It wasn’t like they could hide away from the noise, like they used to. They had to be here, present at all times.

Or maybe, they could distract themself. 

They focused their attention, not on the very nice modern music, but on one of the other many rooms of the house. All the way down, down into the basement.

The dark room was technically claimed by a ghost, but the ghost had never actually attached themself to the room. And so, what would a little push do? 

Release the malevolent spirit trapped within the walls to potentially kill the newest resident of his home? Oh yes, that sounded lovely.

And with a little nudge, just a small one, the shadow moved a brick, and it clinked to the ground in a room that hadn’t seen light in over twelve years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, a tumblr blog!  
> https://sushispider1212.tumblr.com/
> 
> Go ask about my Aus on there. I reblog cool things. And important things. Just things.


	3. Down the River

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was really fun to write for some reason?
> 
> Also, spooky ghosts and mild body horror in this one. Just be warned.

“Go fish.” 

Tommy sighed and grabbed a card off the top of the deck. They had been playing for hours, and somehow Gordon always won. As far as Tommy knew, Darnold had left to go back to the attic, and Sunkist was sitting down beside him.

That was until a loud crash echoed through the house, vibrations shaking the walls. Sunkist pressed a little closer to Tommy, who held onto her, waiting for the vibrations to stop.

Gordon had put down his cards at some point and creaked the door open. “Mr. Freeman,” Tommy called to get his attention, standing up to follow Gordon after placing the cards down. “I want to check it out too. I do own this place now, so I need to make sure nothing’s broken.”

With that, Tommy stepped out of the bedroom and down the steps, Sunkist following close behind him. Unbeknownst to him, Gordon was right beside Sunkist, nervously glancing around the rooms.

Everything looked fine in the living room, and in the dining room and kitchen. That left only one place to check, the basement.

The basement was extremely easy to miss, as it was the closed wooden door right on the opposite side of the coat closet, which was next to the opening to the dining room. Tommy had had no reason to go in there before today, so he had virtually no knowledge of what to expect.

He carefully opened the door and flicked on the light, illuminating the stairwell as it went down. Very carefully, Tommy walked down the creaking old steps, and poked his head into the dark room that the stairs went directly into, light illuminating a little bit of it.

Tommy felt along the wall for a light switch and—oh sweet a washing machine! The room was empty besides the washing machine and dryer, but the floor was covered in rubble.

The wall on the opposite side of the staircase was busted open, the bricks and stone littering the floor. There was a room back there, and the lightbulb illuminated it, excluding the sides beyond the hole in the wall.

The upon getting a little closer, Tommy could make out the faint shape of a table in there, covered in dust, and a couple metal things, still gleaming despite the dust.

He was about to step into the room, but Sunkist stepped in front of him, growling at something in the dark. Tommy stepped back as something in there moved, gleaming eyes reflecting the light.

“Hello?” Tommy called into the shadows, and the creature stepped into the light.

It could only be described as a shadow beast, not even having a solid form, tendrils of dark iridescent matter forming the vague shape of a humanoid body. It’s arms had long, trailing fingers that scraped the bricks as it stepped into the threshold of the room on digitigrade legs.

It stared at Tommy, its eyes reflecting the light, and stood in the room. Sunkist growled louder as it stepped closer, then dashed toward Tommy. It wasn’t a clean run, as halfway through the creature tripped over Sunkist, who had tried to block it, and ended up falling toward Tommy.

And Tommy fell with the creature’s attempted tackle, his back hitting the concrete floor first, luckily not hitting his head. The creature on top of him quickly scrambled up from the awkward position and reared back one arm to attack Tommy.

Tommy tried to move away, but the creature’s other hand gripped Tommy’s right arm. The arm whipped forward, but there was a loud bark as Sunkist jumped on top of the creature again, causing it to miss, falling flat on top of Tommy again.

Tommy used this to wriggle out from under the creature and stand up. Just as he was about to stand fully, the creature grabbed Tommy’s wrist, it’s cold skin touching his.

And it wasn’t a creature anymore.

In one moment the shadow creature Sunkist had her paws on was a human. He looked to be about 18-20 years old, with an extremely choppy haircut, as if they did it themselves.

Tommy looked at him and kneeled down, just taking in the features of this angry spirit. The scar over the left eye was a prominent thing, and Tommy distantly wondered what it was from.

A movement in the corner of his eye shook him out of his odd trance as he turned to look. There, of course, was another human standing there. And if this indeed was ghost magic or something, then it’s a high chance that this new human might be—

“Gordon?” Tommy asked before his brain caught up to him.

Gordon tensed for a moment, before looking down at the man Sunkist held captive. “Yeah, it’s me.” 

Tommy smiled at him, before his eyes trailed down to Gordon’s left arm, where the hand was missing. His eyes traced the black lines on the arm, they must be following the veins or something with the patterning.

Tommy then realized that Sunkist was still sitting on the ghost on the floor, and Tommy was still holding his hand. Tommy looked back up to the stairs and the open door up there, and back to Sunkist.

In an instant, fluid movement, Tommy let go of the hand and booked it back up the stairs, closing the door once Sunkist came through. Gordon followed after, gently opening and closing the door. It seemed that the other ghost didn’t even try to leave the basement.

It was a bit sad, in all honesty. Tommy wondered why the ghost was down there.

——-

He didn’t have to wait long for some minuscule amount of answers to appear.

He had gotten home from work the Friday after the whole basement event, when he noticed that the door to the basement was slightly ajar. Tommy immediately closed the door and bolted into his bedroom, closing the door behind Sunkist.

And he sat on the bed, freaking out while hugging Sunkist, because who knows where the shadow creature could be now, and Tommy just wants one non-stressful thing to happen today and—

He felt a hand on his right arm, and he immediately stiffened, before looking over to see nothing there. Just Gordon. There was an unnatural cold on his left side, that must be Darnold, then.

And the door slowly creaked open, a familiar clawed hand gently opening it. Oh god, it’s coming in.

Tommy stared in horror as the creature came into the bedroom. Sunkist didn’t growl at it this time, so maybe it wasn’t planning on being malicious? It was holding something, some kind of glinting metal and plastic that it had partially concealed by it being pressed against its torso with its arm.

The creature stopped at the foot of the bed, glancing at where Tommy assumed Gordon and Darnold were, and then setting down what it was carrying. They were Beyblades. He was carrying Beyblades.

Tommy laughed, a little giggle of happiness, and tentatively went over to the ghost to grab one. The ghost grinned back, revealing terrifyingly sharp teeth, and picked one of the many Beyblades in the little pile.

——-

And thus, Tommy befriended a third ghost.

The shadow didn’t like that. Not at all.

They watched them from the darkness, their eyes sinking in and out of sight as needed to avoid detection. 

They didn’t know how they felt about this. They certainly hadn’t seen something like this in a long time. Maybe it was because of the dog. Sunkist? Was that her name? They were never good at remembering things.

Sunkist.

Sunkist.

Sunkist was the reason.

The only one he had really talked to before their demise was Darnold. Well, “talked” wasn’t the exact term. The shadow couldn’t talk back then, before they had learned in the years to come.

Their eyes were focused on a shadow right above Gordon, if they could find an opening, bam, no more problem. It just had to be the right one. They could take out the dog, and no more contact with the other ghosts. The dog was the link.

But what if it wasn’t? No. Stop that. That hesitation is what got you killed last time.

They reached out their hand, or one of them, and reached for the dog, claws as sharp as knives flashing downward from the ceiling. There was commotion, but they didn’t register it until a spark of pain shot up normally unfeeling nerves.

They didn’t even hit the dog, but the dumb stupid ancient evil from the basement had their hand in his mouth, teeth sinking into it at the wrist. They let it dissolve, melting back into shadows which quickly dissipated in the light.

This would be harder than they thought. Maybe releasing the spirit was a mistake.

No, that couldn’t be right, they never made mistakes.

Maybe there could be something else they could do, to get rid of Tommy. Maybe something will come to them. 

Maybe, just maybe. They could try possessing something?

No, too risky. 

The shadow was occupied by their thoughts for a long time, going in circles like that until they came to one thought.

The only ghosts left for Tommy to talk to were the most volatile, and the most likely to outright snap and murder someone on a whim.

Yes, the fire couple, as they had nicknamed them, they would certainly try to get Tommy to leave under any means necessary.

Yes, that’s perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, a tumblr blog:  
> https://sushispider1212.tumblr.com/
> 
> It’s nothing special, but occasionally I will talk about my AUs and stuff.  
> Talk to me here, talk to me there, do what you want.
> 
> But any feedback is feedback, and it fuels my creative fire.


	4. Ribs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fuck it, if I can’t have fairy lights, then I’ll just write them in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this took a while to come up with.

It was a while before Tommy saw the last ghosts. It was strange, to say the least, to actually see them.

He was making himself a quick dinner in the kitchen, with the basement ghost, who had later claimed through a writing on a notepad that his name was Forzen, sitting down at the table. Tommy had looked back from the concoction of food to see something odd.

Well, it wasn’t odd now that he was used to ghosts, but it was still a little unnerving to see two flickering images standing behind Forzen, both looking like they wanted to pick a fight with him. They looked elderly, but Tommy would not doubt their strength, if all the stories of poltergeists were true, which they might as well be.

Forzen didn’t seem to notice them and was drawing something in a sketchbook that Tommy had bought for him. He tapped the paper with his pencil, huffing as he stared at it.

It didn’t appear that the ghosts were doing anything harmful right now, so Tommy just let them be and gave his attention back to the food.

When Tommy went to sit down at the dinner table, Forzen looked up and shook his head. He pointed to the chair next to the that one, the one directly across from Forzen. Tommy nodded and wordlessly sat down.

Sunkist, who had been lying down underneath the table, stood up and moved to Tommy’s side, almost in a defensive manner. Must be those other ghosts again.

Tommy’s thoughts traveled to a different train of thought. He had been doing research as to whatever that shadow hand was that had attacked Sunkist only a few days ago. So far, he had found nothing. No records of any haunted places with weird shadow creatures. That or he wasn’t doing a good enough search. That’s a possibility too.

His attention was grabbed by Forzen carefully sliding his sketchbook across the table so Tommy could see it. It was a drawing of the creepy shadow hand, outlined in pencil and shaded in. Tommy looked up at Forzen and nodded his approval at the drawing. 

Forzen smiled, his fanged mouth curling up at the edges. He looked back down at the sketchbook and slid it back over to himself. He exhaled a puff of air and looked back at the chair Tommy had tried to sit down in.

So the ghosts must have been looking at the drawing, and that’s why they were mad. It seems everyone but himself knew what this shadow thing was, and they weren’t exactly willing to tell him the exact nature of it.

Forzen slid the sketchbook across the table to the seemingly empty chair and looked at the ghost who occupied it. The sketchbook was picked up, and a couple other pages were looked through.

And on the last page, way at the back, the page was laid by itself on the table, and a fire sparked in the air. It was a small one, burning blue as if made by gasoline, sparking and flickering as it got closer to the paper.

It was held above the paper, not to close so it doesn’t catch fire, but close enough that the paper started to brown. The fire moved in shaky waves, the ghost the fire was attached to writing something in the flames.

And finally the fire went out, the ghost flipping the sketchbook so that his work was displayed to the world. In shaky handwriting, “Bubby is best” was burned into the pages.

The plain strangeness of it made Tommy give off a snort of laughter, which earned him a look from Forzen, who reached over and placed his hand on Tommy’s. This contact revealed the taller of the two unknown ghosts holding up the sketchpad, grinning wildly.

Tommy’s face brightened, and Forzen retracted his hand.

——-

These new ghosts appeared to be purely visual. Occasionally they would appear, normally while they were doing some of their magic ghost antics. 

The tall one always set small fires to objects that he was sure wouldn’t be missed. Tommy had actually gone and bought some scented candles and set them on the table for him to light, usually resulting in interesting combinations of candle scents wafting through the first floor of the house.

The shorter one always showed up while Tommy was doing puzzles and the like, whenever Tommy would step away, he would catch the shorter one looking over his shoulder, trying to solve the puzzle. He tended to be wrong most of the time, it was the taller one who got them right more often than not.

Tommy was trying to figure out a way to befriend these ghosts as well. So far, he couldn’t really see anything they had in common besides the puzzles. And soda, apparently. They couldn’t drink it, and it ended up in a puddle on the floor, but the shorter one alway drank like a partying frat boy, even using some of his ghost power to crush it against his skull.

From observation, Tommy had managed to figure out their domain at least. It was the front rooms: the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen. Maybe he could do something there?

And so, he tried something different. On one of those days where he would be normally hanging out with the ghosts, specifically the one where he would play music, he decided to do it in the living room.

Forzen was sitting next to him on the couch, and with a small tap revealed the ghosts that were present. Gordon was awkwardly standing next to a bookshelf, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else. Darnold was eagerly going through the books, not moving them much in case he were to accidentally drop one.

Tommy glanced to the dining room, and lo and behold, both of the ghosts were sitting there, staring confusedly at the gathering of ghosts. Or the tall one was at least, the shorter one was grinning wildly as if he had just gotten a terrible idea and was going to go through with it no matter what.

That terrible idea became apparent after a little while. Tommy had turned on the music, and sang along with it. It was a playlist that he had assembled a little while ago and listened to so often that he had practically memorized the songs by now.

It was the during the intro of one of the songs, one that was more rhythmic and felt like something you could dance to, that he saw the couple ghosts. It was during one of the refrains that they appeared, clear glee radiating off them in waves as they danced along to the music.

It was a purely blissful moment, and Tommy was sure there was something happening before hand that he had missed because Forzen was on the other side of the room. 

Tommy stopped for a moment, feeling slightly self-conscious all of a sudden. It was like a bunch of childhood anxieties had ambushed him at once, and his voice went silent as his mind started whirling.

That was immediately remedied by feeling someone grab his right hand. That was Gordon, and Gordon started whisper-singing the next lines that Tommy had stopped at.

And they sang the rest of the song together, doing little movements that couldn’t be considered dance moves to the beat of the song, until it finally came to the end and moved on to the next.

——-

The shadow couldn’t take this anymore. They couldn’t even get away from the noise that pierced every part of the house.

They had thought the fire couple would do more, not get along with Tommy! 

So they had failed, and they couldn’t even blame Sunkist for this anymore. Speaking of Sunkist, she was lying on the couch next to Forzen, so they couldn’t even try again.

So what now? They could try something. Something they had only done once, way back in the beginning.

They stood there, at the top of the stairs, their many eyes scanning the room below. It was dim, so shadows weren’t hard to come by. Tommy had strung up those yellow fairy lights, giving the room a cool ambiance.

They dissipated and manifested back in the room, in a corner shadow casted by the bookshelves. Darnold was the only one who noticed them, the others caught up in whatever they happened to be doing.

And Darnold did something unexpected. He stepped over and extended his hand to them.

But they couldn’t take it. Not with the newfound wave of guilt that washed over them at the mere sight of Darnold. Especially with what they were about to do.

They took one step out of the shadow, then a second step, slowly making their way to Tommy, who he knew could see them if he looked up. And he did.

He only looked up mere moments before shadows filled the room, covering the lights and sapping the battery from the phone. And Tommy would hopefully never see the light again.

The other ghosts could do nothing but watch as the shadows dragged away their newfound friend, the only one who had managed to bring them all together like this.

“Well,” Everyone turned to Bubby when he spoke. “That was interesting.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, hey, I have a tumblr blog:  
> https://sushispider1212.tumblr.com/
> 
> I post art of my AUs there. I might even ramble about this one occasionally.
> 
> Talk here, talk there, I don’t care. But feedback fuels my creative fire!


	5. Can’t Go Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone gets a phone call.

Out of all the things that Mr. Gary Coolatta, or the G-Man as his coworkers called him, had expected that day, it wasn’t a call from his son.

Of course, he could’ve expected it. It was the child he had raised for years ever since he adopted him, but recently he had decided to give him some space, ever since he had moved into the new house, which G-Man had bought.

Situation which required Tommy to move so urgently wasn’t disclosed to G-Man, but he didn’t pry. He would keep his distance until Tommy wanted to tell him.

That being said, around two months later G-Man hadn’t expected a phone call in the middle of the night, around 1 am. 

He shouldn’t have even been awake, because sleep was a thing. However, he was up late working on something that definitely could be done tomorrow, but now felt like the right time. He was further distracted from sleep when his phone rang with that happy tune he had set as the ringtone for Tommy’s contact.

He looked over to the phone on the small coffee table on the other side of his office, and it was indeed a call from Tommy. He glanced at the clock on the wall, and it was indeed 1 am.

G-Man stared at the phone, absently watching it vibrate, until it occurred to him to pick up the phone and answer it. Which he did, scooping it up and sitting up straight in his chair.

Before he could respond, the person on the other phone spoke first. “Um, is this Mr. Coolatta?” 

G-Man sat there, not responding because that voice was definitely not his son’s. After about ten seconds he actually remembered that he had a conversation to hold. “This is, him. What are you, doing with my son’s, phone?”

The other line went quiet, but G-Man could hear faint voices, presumably coming from the background.

“We should tell him the truth! It won’t help us with lying!”

“But he won’t believe it. Who would feasibly believe that a giant shadow has kidnapped their child?”

“I would Bubby!”

“You would fight a helicopter Harold.”

“That’s true!”

“So what’s our plan?”

“How about, Tommy’s in trouble? Maybe we should say he needs to get there as soon as possible!”

“Oh, good idea!” The speaker was now talking directly into the phone. “Tommy’s in a bit of trouble so, we need to get you over here as soon as possible! Here as in his house. We need you to get over here.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t just go over on a whim, I must know the reason behind this, endeavor, Dr. Free—“ He was cut off by a yawn, and he realized just how late it was. Now he’s bringing up the names of dead coworkers? Great.

“Wait, what was that? How tired are you?” The voice sounded extremely agitated. “Cancel that, you need sleep. Go to sleep right now. Come over when you wake up in the morning.” The call was immediately ended by the person with Tommy’s phone.

G-Man wasn’t one to be loud, instead he was always a deathly calm. So he decided to take the mysterious person’s advice and go to sleep, when he knew he should definitely be freaking out about it. He could do that in the morning.

——-

Gordon had a nagging thought at the back of his brain.

He anxiously pulled his hand through Sunkist’s fur, looking at the phone Forzen was examining. It was something Mr. Coolatta had said, or was going to say. That tone to the voice, the frequent pauses, and that last phrase, Dr. Free-something. 

What unsettled Gordon the most was the fact that he could fill in the blank. Dr. Freeman. His name.

Did he know Mr. Coolatta in life? Maybe. His memory was spotty.

Gordon gazed at the floor. He would presumably be waiting here for hours, so he might as well try recalling it.

The first impression he got from that phrase was a desk. Maybe a stapler was involved? He must have been really focused on that stapler to associate it with the phrase.

He probably knew that name from the workplace. Maybe a coworker or higher-up in the company?

The next thing he got was the impression of sadness, like something bad happened. Must have been around the time his ex left him. He remembered a bit more of it this time.

“I, give you my, condolences, Dr. Freeman. I raised a child as a single parent, as well. If there’s anything, anything you need help with, I would be glad to help.”

Huh, he must not have been that bad, if Gordon remembered it even in death. 

There was a third time he remembered hearing it. It must have been the closest one to his death, because the exact words were fuzzed out. It was like static crackling through an old radio. “—I will do the, best I can Dr. Freeman—assure you—Did you, hear me? Oh, I see. Goodbye—“ Then nothing. That must have been when he had died.

He hadn’t noticed when he had started tearing up. He really didn’t want to remember those times, right before he had died. Most of those moments were hazy, but the clear ones were full of extremely painful emotions.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and Forzen looked at him with those unsettling eyes. Forzen, still silent, slowly flickered with spectral energy, gradually turning to his true form, the one that looked human.

They looked at each other, and Forzen tilted his head in understanding. He must have died painfully as well. Maybe a bit more physical pain, rather than emotional pain.

After that little bit of silence, there was the sound of footsteps, and Darnold sat down on the floor, leaning against the couch, directly below Sunkist, who moved to rest her head on the ghost’s head.

After a little while, Bubby and Coomer came out of the kitchen to sit there too.

And they all waited, some a bit more anxious than others, for the sun to rise and the front door to open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a shorter chapter. The next one should be longer. Definitely.
> 
> Yo look, tumblr:  
> https://sushispider1212.tumblr.com/
> 
> Yeah, anyways, feel free to pick apart the little plot threads that are here, besides the obvious.


	6. Curses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A shadowy answer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally it is done! I was hit by another hyperfixation while in the middle of writing about this, but it is finally finished.

There was a long, drawn out creak as the door opened, the man standing outside it slowly pushing it as he entered. 

Gordon watched Mr. Coolatta enter, standing against the wall in the living room that faced the door, Forzen perched on the arm of the couch next to him. Darnold was in the kitchen with Coomer and Bubby last he checked, but Darnold could have left by now.

Mr. Coolatta stepped into the living room, closing the door behind himself, and scanned the room with his eyes. When his eyes crossed over the spot where Forzen and Sunkist were sitting, Gordon noticed that his eyes glowed a faint blue-ish white color, like the color of frost.

Sunkist stood up and leaped off the couch, greeting Mr. Coolatta with a wag of her tail and a smile. Mr. Coolatta crouched down to pet Sunkist with his free hand, the other one still holding on to the briefcase he carried.

Mr. Coolatta looked up again, this time looking at the rest of the room, his eyes glowing again. He carefully set down the briefcase and opened it, pulling out a small drawstring bag.

He carefully opened the bag and gently grabbed whatever object was inside. As it emerged, Gordon noticed the way it refracted the light in a rainbow of patterns, and upon further examination appeared to be a crystal prism of some sorts. It was roughly cut into a rectangular shape, and was about as long as a pen.

Mr. Coolatta held it up to his eye and scanned the room again, this time solely looking through the crystal. Then he put the crystal back in its bag and back into the briefcase, which he closed and picked up once more.

Gordon watched as Mr. Coolatta stepped over to where he and Forzen were, Forzen going extremely still as he concentrated on keeping his human form. 

Mr. Coolatta looked directly at Gordon when he spoke next. “Well, Dr. Freeman, it’s so good to see you again after all this time. I hope you didn’t have to wait long, as I had no idea where you’d end up. So you lived here?”

Gordon blinked once. Then twice. Then a third time. He finally remembered how to speak. “Uh, yes? Did I know you in life or something?”

Mr. Coolatta shook his head and reached a hand out to Gordon. “Now’s not the time, if you truly don’t know. We can discuss this after my son isn’t in mortal peril. So tell me, where is he?”

——-

Tommy opened his eyes in the shadows. 

“Hello?” He called out, uncertain is there was anyone even there to hear. 

Turns out, there was someone there, as the shadows moved like a living organism, twisting and revealing wood and stone underneath them as they fluidly shifted and twisted, swirling together into the form of a human.

The and at once the shadows slipped back. Although, they weren’t exactly shadows either, as they were very fluid-like, and they shimmered in the silver light.

Wait light? There shouldn’t be any light.

Tommy’s train of thought shifted to the ghost who had emerged from the shadows. They looked normal, at least. However, they were, in fact, made of shadows.

“Why?” They asked.

“Why what?” Tommy was puzzled by this ghost. After being very violently absorbed into whatever shadow dimension in the house this was, Tommy certainly wasn’t expecting this ghost to be so deathly calm.

“Why here? Why did you make me be bad? Why did you, why did, why did you talk to them? Why didn’t you leave?”

“Well, ghosts are cool! And, well, I didn’t make you do anything. But if you want, we could have a conversation about what you want. I won’t run away screaming, at least.”

“But why!” The ghost’s form started shifting and flickering as the shadows started pouring into the form. “They’re going to leave now! I can’t let them leave!”

“Why can’t you?” Tommy quietly asked, slowly stepping through the shadows and the revealed floor. 

The ghost flinched and took a step back as Tommy drew nearer. “I, I uh, I don’t…” The ghost trailed off, their eyes drifting to the side of the room. A part of the shadows moved, revealing something glowing, the silver light pulsing like a heartbeat.

Tommy decided to step towards that instead, reaching out a hand to brush against it once he was close enough. The clinging shadows moved aside, revealing what looked like a pendant on a necklace embedded in the wall.

It was in a kind of indent, the circular pendant, and it looked interesting, to say the least. The pendant itself looked like the inside of a pocket watch, all gears on a metal base, but the most interesting part of it was the not-clockwork section.

Someone had attached this small metal deer skull to the top of the pendant, so that the part where the chain was slipped through the top of the pendant was resting between the antlers of the skull. It was from the eye sockets of this skull that the light emanated.

The pendant was mostly embedded in the wall, but the necklace chain was dangling down in front of it, the only reason that it wasn’t casting much of a shadow was that it was caught on one of the antlers of the skull.

So Tommy reached out and tugged the necklace free of the wall, gently pulling on the chain until it popped out and gently rested in the palm of his hand. 

The shadows moved to cover the spot on the wall again, but still shied away from the glow. Tommy looked back over to the ghost, who was staring at the necklace.

“What’s your name? Mine’s Tommy!”

The ghost seemed taken aback by this, but sighed and responded. “‘s Benrey.”

“Benrey. That’s a nice name!” Tommy started playing with the chain of the necklace as he continued. “Well, um, where are we right now Benrey? I don’t think the house can have an inaccessible room like this just lying around.”

“Backyard cellar.” The ghost responded without any hesitation.

“Can you take me back to the house, please? I think everyone might be worried.”

Benrey once again paused, before the shadows covered the room again, wrapping around Tommy’s legs and in an instant they swallowed the rest of the light. And suddenly, they were back in the living room of the house.

Tommy stumbled a little at the transition, being basically pushed out of the shadows in between the bookshelves, but he quickly regained his balance and glanced around. The room was empty.

That was until Tommy heard footsteps in the hallway and his dad came into sight, coming from the hallway from the basement. G-Man stopped, opened his mouth to say something, and turned around, and from the sound of it, opened the basement door and walked back down.

Tommy slowly approached the hallway when G-Man reappeared once again, this time followed by Gordon and Sunkist, the latter of whom ran up to Tommy and Tommy crouched down to pet her.

“So, Tommy.” G-Man spoke hesitantly. “What happened? How did you return? Your friends here,” he motioned toward the other ghosts, who were following after Gordon, “they told me you had been kidnapped by a malevolent spirit. How did you, come back?”

“Oh, Benrey. He wasn’t mean on purpose! He just couldn’t not do what he did!” Tommy held up the necklace, hoping that his reasoning made sense.

G-Man walked closer, examining the necklace. It had stopped glowing so profusely, but it still casted a very faint light. After a few more minutes of examination, G-Man looked back at Tommy. “I need to test something, could you ask this, Benrey, to come here, please?”

Tommy nodded. “Can you come here please, Benrey?”

And in an instant Benrey appeared in the shadows, stepping out so that they could be distinguished from the shadows that swarmed around behind them.

“Please ask them to do something for you, Tommy.”

“Um, well, I guess? Benrey, could you grab a soda from the fridge please?”

Benrey loudly sighed, but slowly drifted over towards the kitchen, the other ghosts moving out of the way of the trailing black tendrils of shadow. Once Benrey disappeared into the other room, G-Man carefully stepped over to his briefcase. Benrey reappeared with a soda in hand, stopping in the threshold of the kitchen.

Tommy looked at Benrey, before glancing over to his dad, who was rifling through the briefcase, pulling out various papers and glancing over them before putting them back.

“Hmm, this is a rare case indeed, we’re lucky that the person who owned that necklace before didn’t have any malicious intentions. You see, Tommy, this necklace, to put it simply, contains a piece of Benrey’s soul, which then allows the person the necklace is bonded to to give orders to the spirit it’s tethered to.”

Tommy frowned and glanced down at the necklace. That explained a couple things anyways, but something just didn’t sit right with him about controlling someone else. What if he did it on accident! What if he made an order that he would definitely regret later?

“Don’t worry Tommy, the orders can only be given while holding the necklace. Other passive effects while being in the presence of the spirit for a long time, will stay however, and fade away over time. Such as being able to see the dead.”

That’s when Tommy noticed, the switch in his brain finally flipped. “Oh.” He sighed loudly. How had he not noticed it before? He was staring directly at the ghosts whom he had not noticed for a while when first living here simply because he couldn’t see them.

Then Tommy smiled. He was grinning as he carefully placed the dreaded necklace on one of the bookshelves and went over to greet his friends, assuring them that he was fine.

While that commotion was going on, Benrey carefully walked up to G-Man, taking slow sips of the soda they held. “So. There’s no way to get rid of it?”

“I’m afraid not, unless you want your afterlife to be spent in the, void.”

“Welp. Guess I have to hang around here, keep an eye on things.” Benrey took a long and obnoxious sip of their soda. 

“How are you, even drinking that?”

Benrey didn’t answer, instead choosing to stare at the happy reunion happening in front of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t like how I wrote this ending. As I said, I was hit by another hyperfixation in the middle of writing this, but I was too stubborn to write out the new idea first.
> 
> Anyways, as always, here’s a link to my tumblr blog:
> 
> https://sushispider1212.tumblr.com/
> 
> Feel free to discuss things and theories in the comments, I love to hear people’s thoughts on my writing!


End file.
